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Kaempferol promotes bacterial pathogen resistance through the activation of NPR1 by both SA and MPK signaling pathways in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Flavonoids have a variety of biological functions including UV protectant, antioxidant, allelopathy and auxin transport inhibitor in plants. In addition, flavonoids are implicated in defense response against pathogens. In this study, we found that kaempferol, a kind of flavonol, induces bacterial pathogen resistance. In addition, we identified the signaling pathway to explain how kaempferol can induce pathogen resistance in Arabidopsis. We showed that kaempferol upregulates the transcription of two pathogenesis-related (PR) genes. Interestingly, the monomerization and nuclear translocation of NPR1, a key regulator of PR gene expression, was induced by kaempferol through the accumulation of salicylic acid (SA). Furthermore, we found that the kaempferol-induced monomerization of NPR1 is mediated by the activation of MPK3 and MPK6. Taken together, this study suggests that kaempferol induces pathogen resistance by both SA and MPK-dependent signaling pathways in Arabidopsis.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science and Technology Development (No. PJ01590901) funded by the Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea and by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2021R1A6A3A01088557) and partly supported by the Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) (No. 106.02-2017.09) and by the National Institute of Ecology (NIE-B-2022-15).

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  1. Jonguk An and Xuan Canh Nguyen have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Applied Life Science (BK21 Four Program), Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Research Center, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 52828, Republic of Korea

    Jonguk An, Sun Ho Kim, Sunghwa Bahk, Hobin Kang, Minh Le Anh Pham, Jaemin Park, Zakiyah Ramadany, Sang Hee Kim & Woo Sik Chung

  2. Faculty of Biotechnology, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Ha Noi, 12406, Vietnam

    Xuan Canh Nguyen

  3. Team of Ecological Adaptation Research, Division of Climate and Ecology, Bureau of Conservation Research, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, 33657, Republic of Korea

    Hyeong Cheol Park

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Contributions

JA, XCN, HCP and WSC designed, planned and organized the experiments. JA, HK, MLAP, ZR and JP performed the experiments. JA, XCN, SB, SHK and SHK analyzed the data. JA, XCN, SHK, HCP and WSC wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hyeong Cheol Park or Woo Sik Chung.

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An, J., Nguyen, X.C., Kim, S.H. et al. Kaempferol promotes bacterial pathogen resistance through the activation of NPR1 by both SA and MPK signaling pathways in Arabidopsis. Plant Biotechnol Rep 16, 655–663 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-022-00806-5

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